Sunday, June 24, 2018

Tomorrow Begins at Midnight

Over the last two years I’ve gained twenty pounds and I’ve lost the habit of exercise. Gains and losses. The story of modern life. How did I lose something so fundamental to who I am? No matter what I thought of myself, I could always see myself as active and, if not fit, at least able bodied. Then came a patch of illness and maladies that admittedly took more out of me than I realized. Eventually between that and a lot of travel for work, I lost my comely figure as well as the will to care. Of course, I thought I have to get back in shape. Then I’d go to the gym, tweak my back,knee, or some other thing and have push the reset button again.

“But that ends today! - was the thing I said yesterday”

If the ailments of age weren’t enough, the last couple of years my work has led to a schedule that might begin at 7:30 AM and end at 7:00 PM. Even if I did finish early there might be a “hacktivist" night to attend where cheese pizza satisfied as supper until I got home at around 10 PM. No techy meeting to attend? Hey don’t worry there’s a Cycle Toronto meeting to go to. No meetings at all? That’s fine, I still have to actually do the things I said I’d do at those other meetings, right? There’s nothing that will destroy your humanity faster than spending 16 hours of your day looking at a computer screen then to close your eyes at night and still see it. I seem to spend my days staring at the world through a glass window or staring at glowing pixels through a glass screen. Yet that’s what I signed up for. What was my reward for this effort? Certainly not sleeping and yet still having to get up the next day which inevitably begins with a headache caused by not sleeping. I think by now I’ve consumed enough ibuprofen to have dissolved my liver, at least one kidney and probably have added a hole where I don’t need one in my stomach lining.

"But that ends today!” was the thing I said yesterday and all the yesterdays before that. The last time I was in shape I discovered a magic number. 100. If you exercise everyday for 30-45 minutes for one hundred days consecutively (given some recovery days of light exercise in between) you will be a different person. Perhaps even a better person. They say you can accomplish almost anything in 100 days. Learn a language or learn to play an instrument as long as you do it 100 days in a row. When I did this before, I lost 25 pounds and felt 10 years younger. Thus I’m always just 100 days from being that person again.

I finally went for my first run in almost exactly one month. Then a day later, I intended to go to the gym but work did what work does and being committed to finishing something meant there was no way I could get to a workout. Then I was off to a Civic-Tech Toronto meet-up (where I heard the incredible 83-year-old sprite, Joy Kowaga talk about a community currency she helped create more than a decade before anyone had heard of cryptocurrency or blockchain). I left the meeting planning on doing a workout at home but first I had to grab some groceries. By the time I walked through the door it was almost 10 PM.

The next day I was again 100 days from my better self. I dusted myself off and started the whole thing over. Eventually, I’ll string together two days of exercise. Then three. Before you know it, I’ll need that recovery day. Some days tomorrow never comes, but other days, tomorrow begins at midnight. You can count on tomorrow, and tomorrow and tomorrow.